Former University of Michigan football coach Lloyd Carr will be the grand marshal for the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400 at MIS. Carr, a College Football Hall of Fame Inductee, headed the Wolverines’ football program from 1995-2007, winning a national championship in 1997.

“It will be great to host Lloyd Carr and his family at Michigan International Speedway and show him what all the excitement around NASCAR is about,” MIS track President Roger Curtis said. “Carr is a household name in Michigan, and there are a lot of NCAA football fans in the NASCAR garage that I’m sure will be excited to meet him.”

Carr will be at MIS as part of a contingent to promote “Wolverines for Life,” an organization designed to promote organ donation.

“I am a Wolverine for Life, and that goes well beyond the athletic field,” Carr said in a press release. “Through Wolverines for Life, we hope to wipe out the deaths that occur because people are waiting for life-saving organs, blood or tissue.

“Every day, 19 people die while waiting for a transplant. That’s a score we can’t live with.”

Melling returns as sponsorMelling Engine Parts of Jackson is sponsoring the No. 92 Chevy of Brian Keselowski of K-Automotive Motorsports in the Sprint Cup Series event this weekend.

Melling was last on the 92 car at MIS in 2003 before Melling sold its shop to Arnold Motorsports. Melling Racing was one of the series’ dominant teams in the 1980s with driver Bill Elliott. Elliott and owner Harry Melling combined to win the Cup Series championship in 1988.

“I am pleased to help out another racing family with Michigan roots,” said Mark Melling, CEO of Melling Engine Parts. “We once had the Melling name on a K-Automotive truck in Daytona, and this opportunity was too good to pass up.”Brian Keselowski was 38th in the final practice session Friday.

MIS to be repavedMIS President Roger Curtis announced the speedway will be repaved after the 2011 season.

It will be the first repaving of the two-mile oval since 1995. The $7 million project will begin with a repaving of pit lane after this weekend’s races.

The project will mark the fourth repavement of the track since it opened in 1968. Other repavement dates were 1977, 1986 and 1995.

“Just like every other race track, it will change the grip and the tire combination, which will have an effect on the racing,” driver Ryan Newman said. “I don’t think we’ve ever gone to a newly surfaced race track and run three wide or had grooves to work with.

“In saying that, it’s something that has to be done for the future of our sport from a safety standpoint.”

Ajax Paving Co. of Troy will do the project.

Bringing the thunderWorld War II veteran and NASCAR Hall of Famer Bud Moore is at MIS this week in support of the U.S. Army and its 236th birthday celebration.

Moore, whose likeness as a teenage soldier is on the U.S. Army car driven by Ryan Newman this weekend, was asked his thoughts about the men and women defending this country.

“When I was in the Army and going through what I did in World War II, and I was with General Patton the whole time I was over there, and when we fought the war over there, we sort of knew who we were fighting and who we weren’t,” he said.

“What we did in World War II, we killed everything that moved. If it was a cow or a bird or dog or what, it didn’t make any difference.”

Oily to bed, oily to riseNASCAR officials ordered Joe Gibbs Racing to swap out the oil pans in the Cup Series cars of Joey Logano, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin prior to the start of Friday’s practice.

The oil pans were deemed by NASCAR to be unapproved parts.

NASCAR promised to discuss the issue further next week and determine if there will be any additional penalties handed down.